Summer:
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Roadrat[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

Winter:
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Winter Roadrat[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

Lived in Aberdeen for 8 years. Hate the city, love the countryside. Don’t try to commute through the city (i.e. crossing either of the rivers) – it will drive you insane. I work in the north of the city, so picked a house to the north – much easier commute that way.

Moving to Edinburgh at the end of the year – ready for a change of scenery. From the very quick survey I’ve done so far it looks like I’ll be saving about £50-80k on the price of the sort of house I want.

J

I’m a big fan of the Roadrat. I built mine for comfort and practicality rather than speed and it’s great for long days touring around. Coming up to 4,000 miles old and still going strong:

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Roadrat[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Winter Roadrat[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Muddy bikes[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Muddy bikes[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

wilde86 – looking good! As others have said: fix the header image and you’ll have a really cool site there.

J (MONKEY on a BICYCLE[/url])

It very much depends on the sort of things you want to look at. If you’re interested in the planets, go for a cheap refractor such as a 120mm Skywatcher. For planets it’s also worth investing in a good eyepiece and perhaps a 2x or 3x Barlow.

If you want to see dimmer stuff (galaxies, nebulae etc) and you have suitably dark skies then a Dobsonian (reflector) can be a good investment. Again, on the cheaper end of the scale, Skywatcher are a good brand.

If you want to get into astrophotography, then the word ‘cheap’ doesn’t come into it 😉

J

Broke my 1st metacarpal opening a particularly stubborn jar of gherkins.

J

Muck Boots are my choice. Warm, comfortable and very well made.

J

http://www.flickr.com/photos/egg_n_bacon/%5B/url%5D
and
http://www.monkeyonabicycle.com/%5B/url%5D

-j (enthusiastic amateur)

Nice!

Sweet looking bike Shibboleth! I suspect my winter road bike is somewhere on the opposite end of the weight scale. Still it gets me around when my car is buried…

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Winter Roadrat[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Winter Roadrat[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

-J

A couple I can recommend are Nettie’s crab shack[/url] (try the Crab BLT) and the Franciscan on the bay front.

-j

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Heckler rebuilt[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Heckler in snow[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

Currently running a Fox Van RC coil shock.

-j

Infamous is great. I got Dead Nation as well, but haven’t found time to try it.

J

I’m a bit of a fan of black and white photography, so…

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Si drop and jump[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Me log ride closeup[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Me log ride[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Si gas drop[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Si timber stack jump[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

All Cannock Chase.

J

There’s piles of good stuff – that’s why I moved up here. To name a few: Kirkhill Forest, Scolty Hill, Pitfichie, Fungle Road, Mount Keen, Moray Monster trails further north, oh and there’s also the small matter of the Cairngorms. The Ecurie Neep site is a good starting point. I also have a few trails on my website.

J

I used to have the Revo 2.5R. Great fun, especially on the rough stuff. Once you have the engine run in and tuned properly it’s ridiculously fast. Weak points seem to be the suspension wishbones (especially the front) and if you’re buying second hand make sure the diffs aren’t trashed.

J

Pause for breath at the radio mast, enjoy the view to the sea. Drop your seat and take the plunge into the trail. Loose at first, a sculpted berm fires you out at warp speed. Chain snicks down the cassette reaching for faster gears. Top gear reached in a matter of seconds. Eyes focus on the line through the sinewy bench-cut trail. The bike working beneath you controlled purely by instinct now. As quickly as it begins the trail slows, tightens up and drops into the trees. A smile across your face you wonder if there’s time for one more “Mast Blast”.

-J

@Tijuana Taxi: 211 images shot through a 9.25″ scope. The full image is a 1.2GB monster.

Hmmm… flickr’s being weird again. Let’s try that one more time:

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The Moon[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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The Moon[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

@snaps – that’s the fella! Very impressive in real life.

-j

This thread is very great indeed!

Keeping with a hill climb theme:

… pity I can’t find my vid of a Predator hillclimb special at Fintray.

-j

I respectfully submit this for consideration by the group.

-j

The Ecurie Neep[/url] site is a good place to start.

J

I’ve lived in Aberdeenshire for 6 years now. I live in the countryside to the north as cities aren’t really my thing. If you enjoy the outdoor life it’s a great place to live. There’s some spectacular coastlines and easy access to the mountains. Even just travelling for 20-30 minutes from the city will put you in some good places for cycling and walking.

House prices in the city have been pretty steep, but they appear to be plateauing now, the rental prices can also be a bit on the expensive side. If you live outside the city, the prices come down quite a bit. If possible try to be on the correct side of the city for your commute as crossing the two main bridges can be a real nightmare in the mornings.

-j

Not sure how to quantify the difference in terms of angles etc, but it certainly suits my riding better. Still seems to climb OK. Of course, going from an air-spring to a coil also made a difference.

-j

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Heckler Rebuilt[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Heckler rebuilt[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

Mine has been built in several different incarnations. The photos above show the current spec. I’ve had RS Pikes up front as well, but prefer the slacker feeling of the Lyriks.

-j

My first 50:

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20090613_5245_Singletrack_50-Edit_1000px.jpg[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

I started a subscription at issue 4 (and got the previous issues on backorder). This coincided with me getting back into cycling after several years off the bike.

-j

My comments are on this thread.

-j

I’ve found mine to be very capable. I’m using them on my RoadRat and they’re fine on ice and snow up to about 15-20cm. Unconsolidated slush seems to be their only nemesis.

(see here and here[/url] for my comments).

-j

I’ve never used the Marathon Winters, but from the pictures they look considerable less aggressive than the Continental Nordic Spikes that I run on my RoadRat. The Conti’s are fine in snow depths up to about 20cm. I posted a quick overview of my bike a few days ago (here). I’m also running a series of articles about winter biking on my website over the next week.

As for flat pedals I consider them a must at this time of year. I usually ride in walking boots. You may be OK whilst on the bike, but if you have a problem you need good footwear to walk your way out of trouble.

-j

I have a 2.2 Civic. On the whole I’m very pleased with it. I think the VW gets slightly better MPG though. If you test drive a Civic give it some welly in 4th gear to make sure the clutch doesn’t slip. There were a whole bunch of them sold with dodgy clutches.

-j

I’m on Blogger and it does everything I want. Tumblr also caught my eye, but I think customising the look is a bit more involved (looks like you need to twiddle the CSS).

-j

@scruff – yeah, I did notice a little bit of drag in the hub. Can’t say it was any worse than my other (non-gear) rear hubs though.

They’re the 240 versions, got them from Chainreaction. Yes, they’re expensive, but this time of year it’s the only way I can get out on my bike, so I think they’re well worth the price. Last year I missed out as they were all sold out, so I bought mine 6 months ago in the middle of summer.

-j

I was very disappointed in the TZ10. In my opinion it has too many pixels for the small sensor size. The images look murky and noisy. In the end I sold mine and changed to a Canon S95 (a lot more expensive). The cheaper TZ7 also produces much better images.

-j

Snowing steadily in Aberdeen. Probably 8-10cm in places so far.

-j

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Approaching the top of Mount Tampie[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

-j

I’m guessing mine arrived early as I pre-ordered 2 months ago and the mail-order companies can’t ship all the orders in a single day. So to guarantee people get it on release day they ship a bit early.

-j

Mine arrived this morning. Can’t wait to fire it up tonight. I’ve waited 3.5 years for this game – hope it’s good.

-j